Chalupa in paradise: Does Pacifica have the world’s...

1of12A surfer exits the water, right, near the Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

2of12Taco Bell on the shores of Pacifica.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

3of12Peggy and Mike Bowles of Modesto enjoy a meal while watching surfers on the back deck of Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

4of12Peggy and Mike Bowles of Modesto enjoy a meal on the back deck of Taco Bell while watching surfers ride waves.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

5of12The waves of Pacifica State Beach are seen reflected on the windows of Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

6of12Surfers and beach goers can be seen through the windows of Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

7of12Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

8of12A walk-up window for sandy-toed surfers is seen on the back deck of Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

9of12Tara and Greg Hanson of Indiana watch surfers after finishing their meal on the back deck of Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

10of12A surfer is seen walking along Pacifica State Beach from the back deck of Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

11of12A customer enjoys a meal at Taco Bell with a view of surfers walking along Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

12of12A message for patrons coming from the beach is posted on an outdoor walk-up window at Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Pacifica resident Richard Solin follows a routine when he goes to the greatest Taco Bell in the world.

He finds a seat in the high-ceiling interior of the wood building, positioning himself to face outside one of the enormous picture windows, and looks to see if there are any whales.

“You can see whales out there, just (below) the horizon, flopping their tails,” the retired 60-year-old says. “Three or four at a time. They get really close.”

The Linda Mar Taco Bell, as it is known to the locals, is isolated on the beach side of the Pacific Coast Highway on the southern tip of Pacifica. It is a miracle of location, architecture and exemption from coastal land use regulations.

It also has become a tourist destination, making guidebooks and various online lists. Locals say it’s not unusual to see the parking lot filled with rental cars.

Taco Bell officials don’t know the complete the history of the building. But it has been passed down through generations in Pacifica,. Every resident seems to have worked there, or given birth to someone who worked there. At the very least, everyone has a good story to tell about it.

The structure was built alongside Pacifica State Beach in the late 1960s, and was an A&W hamburger franchise for at least a decade. Don Southworth, who managed that restaurant for a couple years in the 1970s, confirms there used to be a gas-powered fireplace in the restaurant.

“Business was almost entirely driven by the weather,” Southworth remembers. “When it was sunny, especially on the weekends and in the summer, the place was packed with people. When it was foggy, which was most of the time, it was really slow.”

Kathy McGuire, vice-president of the Pacifica Historical Society, says the restaurant was “grandfathered in before Proposition 20,” the 1972 California initiative which established the Coastal Commission. The initiative makes it nearly impossible for a restaurant, much less an international chain with 7,000 locations, to establish roots west of Highway 1.

Perhaps the world’s best Taco Bell? It’s located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach.

Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

For decades, the Taco Bell was a locals’ place, until a 1990s national travel article established the Taco Bell as an unofficial landmark.

“About 25 years ago it was listed in Conde Nast, as one of the world’s most scenic fast food establishments,” McGuire remembers. “One of the other ones was in Nome, Alaska. I definitely remember that.”

In just the last five years, the Pacifica Taco Bell has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Trip Advisor, Buzzfeed and KPNX Channel 12 news in Arizona — each story adding a new round of social media attention.

Tom Douglas, vice president of Golden Gate Bell LLC, said he was informed about the uniqueness of the location shortly after he was hired in February.

“When I moved here I was told, ‘Hey there’s an article that says the Taco Bell you’re going to be running is the greatest in the world,’” Douglas remembers. “Sure enough, I Googled ‘Greatest Taco Bell in the World,’ and up pops our Taco Bell here in Pacifica.”

Douglas said the Taco Bell holds high esteem in Golden Gate Bell LLC, which franchises the Pacifica Taco Bell and about 80 others in the Bay Area. And it won’t be going anywhere soon. He confirmed plans to upgrade the location to a Taco Bell Cantina early next year, with a new interior and menu changes including alcoholic beverages.

Surfers and beach goers can be seen through the windows of Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach.

Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

If the Pacifica Taco Bell isn’t the greatest in the world, it’s almost certainly the loveliest fast food location in the Bay Area — an honor that has been uncontested since the 1996 closure of the Presidio Burger King, which offered both Whopper Juniors with cheese and a sterling view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

(The old Presidio Burger King building is scheduled for demolition this week, as part of an urban park project to improve Presidio views.)

Despite dozens of 1-star Yelp reviews — many tied to the continued disoperation of a soda machine last summer — a visit to the Linda Mar Taco Bell lives up to the hype.

From a distance the Taco Bell looks like a high-end ski resort warming hut, with rakishly angled wooden walls resting on white pillars that make the restaurant appear to levitate. It’s the only large structure on a pristine half-moon of coast bookended with a cliff wall and a tree-lined hill.

Up close, the Taco Bell is arguably even more impressive. A walk-up window for surfers is available on the wooden deck that circles the building.

Inside, the huge windows are complemented by tiered seating and picture windows that wrap around the front, for optimum whale- and surfer-watching. The colorful abstract wall hangings have a primitivistic flair. A very inexperienced eye, who misses the subtle “Taco Bell” logos painted near the bottom, might mistake the artwork for Jean-Michel Basquiat prints.

Waterfront views are seen from tables sit on the back deck of Taco Bell located on the shores of Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica.

Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

The menu is a regular Taco Bell, although that will change next year. Along with alcoholic beverages, the Las Vegas Taco Bell Cantina serves something called the “Twisted Freeze,” which looks like someone spiked a Snoopy Sno-cone Machine with vodka, tequila or rum.

In a city known for its heavy cloud cover and being the birthplace of comedian Rob Schneider, where the local school district and Safeway are the two largest employers, there seems to be pride for the Taco Bell.

Run into a longtime Pacifica resident, and they probably have a good Linda Mar Taco Bell story.

Natie Juvland, 83, who volunteers in the Pacifica Coastside Museum gift shop, has a daughter who worked there almost four decades ago. She once walked in on a huge group of guests who all seemed to know each other.

“They said, ‘Oh, we’re here for the wedding reception,’” Juvland says. “Then they pointed out the couple. They said they wanted the reception (at) Taco Bell. I guess that’s one of their favorite places.”

Back inside the Taco Bell, a crowd has developed, and Solin and Steve Winkler, a Pacifican who has been patronizing the restaurant since the 1970s, have been waiting a while for their orders. Rather than complain, they continue to list positive attributes.

More Information

Do you frequent a picturesque fast food location in the Bay Area?

Beautiful locations and landcaping both count. Email your nominations to Peter Hartlaub at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com, with the subject line “Fast Food with a View.” Photos and stories are welcome.

Read More

“It’s very convenient, inexpensive, you can’t beat the view,” Solin says, as a couple surfers finishing their set stroll toward the building. “And you know what you’re getting. It’s a Taco Bell.”

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic and host of the podcast The Big Event. The Bay Area native has worked at The Chronicle since 2000, and was a Chronicle paperboy from 1982 to 1984. He reviews movies, television and comedy, covers entertainment, creates multimedia projects and writes the Our San Francisco local history column. The Big Event is recorded in The Chronicle’s basement archive. Hartlaub lives in Alameda.